{"id":15545326,"date":"2024-07-18T15:25:52","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T19:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golf.com\/?post_type=article&p=15545326"},"modified":"2024-07-18T19:57:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T23:57:57","slug":"padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/features\/padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals\/","title":{"rendered":"Padraig Harrington is a serial truth teller. Ask his pro-am partners | GOLF Originals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You looking for a good time? Catch every swing you can that Padraig Harrington<\/a> makes this week at Royal Troon<\/a>, where the 52-year-old golfer will be looking to win his third British Open. OK, OK, not too likely, but not totally nutso. His golf is still excellent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, to keep this party going, check him out next week at Carnoustie, when the new World Golf Hall of Fame<\/a> inductee will be looking to win his first British Senior Open. Padraig Harrington is huge fun to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This guy is all in on every practice swing, every swing swing, every word out of his mouth. He\u2019s as original as anybody playing this game today. He\u2019s also the fifth victim in GOLF.com’s original series called . . . GOLF Originals. <\/em>David Feherty<\/a> in March, Tom Doak<\/a> in April, Mike Whan<\/a> in May, Brandel Chamblee<\/a> in June, and here\u2019s Paddy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can watch him free, here and now, on this page. Is this a great time to be alive, or what? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You want to hear about how to hit a hybrid out of the rough? We got Paddy on that. Or what went wrong with Rory on that 30-inch putt on 70th hole of the U.S. Open? Paddy weighs in. Or what it was like to play with Greg Norman in the last twosome, final day, in the 2008 British Open? Or what it\u2019s like to play in a pro-am with Harrington as your pro?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hint: Harrington likes <\/em>playing in pro-ams, but if you\u2019re going to play with him, you better be able to handle the truth. At a senior event last month, in Endicott, N.Y., near Binghamton, Harrington played with an amateur who described his experience playing high school baseball but showed no instinct or knack for golf at all. Harrington was baffled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYalook incredibly <\/em>unathletic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pro instructed am to make a horizontal baseball swing with a golf club. (That\u2019s Bill Murray\u2019s go-to pre-shot move.) The fella stepped right into an imaginary pitch. Harrington had the guy make that same swing at a golf ball at his feet. It was instantly a hundred times better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOK!\u201d Harrington said. \u201cBrilliant!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He prods and he gives. It\u2019s all in good fun, every last bit of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n \"padraig
\n Harrington working his game-improvement magic. <\/span>\n \n Darren Riehl\/GOLF.com<\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n

Harrington notes, in this 15-minute mini-doc that is an instructional video by happy accident, that the golf swing basically is the baseball swing, and in both you\u2019re swinging a stick at a ball. Harrington\u2019s father was a police officer who could play any sport. Harrington is the youngest of five boys. If only his unpretentiousness were contagious. Golf needs more Padraig Harringtons. But there\u2019s only one, and we got him here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Troon, his Thursday-Friday tee times are late\/early. Phil Mickelson is in the threesome in front of him and Darren Clarke is in front of Mickelson. Three Open winners in their 50s, all in a row. Clarke won the 2022 Senior Open. Mickelson hasn\u2019t played in one. Harrington wouldn\u2019t miss it. He loves playing tournament golf. He loves talking about the swing. He loves teaching the game, by which he means helping you realize that, to some significant degree, you have to figure it out for yourself. There will be future major winners who have unlocked some of the mysteries of the game for themselves, as Clarke and Harrington and Mickelson have done. But not all that many. It\u2019s at the root of Harrington\u2019s immense appeal. Add that to this: When he was 20, the namesake son of the Garda officer and boxer figured he\u2019d become an accountant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He didn\u2019t become an accountant. Two years after the death of his father, for whom he was named, Padraig Harrington went on an epic run: the 2007 British Open, the 2008 British Open, the 2008 PGA Championship. Those three wins alone made him a Hall of Famer, but there was lots more where that came from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My colleague Darren Riehl and I saw Harrington, alongside four amateurs of varying skills, at a senior tour event, the Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods Open, at a public course, the En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott, about a week after his Hall of Fame induction. You could have warmed a pizza slice on a cart path, the day was so hot. If Harrington had missed a dessert course in the past month it was not evident. He was hitting it all over the map, but also over, under and around trees. (The course has a lot of trees.) He got mad at Darren and me \u2014 or maybe I should just say me \u2014 by causing him to miss an on-course food truck with our endless questions and documenting. I would have taken the over on him shooting 216 or higher, even par for the three-round tournament. He shot 15 under and one by a shot. Three trips to Endicott. Three wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I told Harrington that I could draw a straight line from Lee Trevino to Nick Price to him, for understanding the game, playing it at the highest level, having a knack for teaching it in terms anyone could understand. He liked that. He told us he liked pro-ams, that pro-ams helped him with his own golf. You can get more than a taste of all of that, here on this GOLF Originals <\/em>presentation. You do want to get better, don\u2019t you? Paddy\u2019s here to help, without being all warm and fuzzy about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Padraig Harrington is all in on every practice swing, every swing swing, every word out of his mouth. And he wants to make you better. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15545461,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2024-07-18T19:25:56Z","apple_news_api_id":"918e396c-72be-490b-b141-126a3a4354f5","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2024-07-18T23:57:55Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AkY45bHK-SQuxQRJqOkNU9Q","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[42],"tags":[63272,61925],"class_list":["post-15545326","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-golforiginals","tag-padraigharrington"],"acf":{"tee_time_button_status":false,"wsum-gated-content":false,"wsotp_enable_one_time_payment":false,"ad_meta":false,"article_template":"standard-video","featured_image_caption":"","featured_image_credits":"Darren Riehl\/GOLF.com","art_author":[{"ID":14045639,"post_author":"235","post_date":"2016-11-09 13:44:40","post_date_gmt":"2016-11-09 13:44:40","post_content":"Michael Bamberger joined Sports Illustrated as a senior writer in 1995 after 13 years as a newspaper reporter. Bamberger's versatility as a writer and his lucid, open style are hallmarks of his work. He has written a play (\"Bart & Fay\") and five books, among them This Golfing Life. He is also the inventor of The E-Club (eclubgolf.com), a utility golf club. His work has appeared in three editions of the annual anthology The Best American Sports Writing.","post_title":"Michael Bamberger","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"michael-bamberger","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-03-22 16:01:03","post_modified_gmt":"2024-03-22 20:01:03","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.golf.com\/?post_type=golf_person&p=14045639","menu_order":0,"post_type":"contributor","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"art_source":"None","parone_video":[1518606162206115],"show_slider":false},"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nPadraig Harrington is a serial truth teller. Ask his pro-am partners | GOLF Originals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Padraig Harrington is all in on every practice swing, every swing swing, every word out of his mouth. And he wants to make you better.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/features\/padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Padraig Harrington is a serial truth teller. Ask his pro-am partners | GOLF Originals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Padraig Harrington is all in on every practice swing, every swing swing, every word out of his mouth. And he wants to make you better.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/features\/padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Golf\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/golf\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-18T23:57:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/paddy1-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@golf_com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Padraig Harrington is a serial truth teller. Ask his pro-am partners | GOLF Originals","description":"Padraig Harrington is all in on every practice swing, every swing swing, every word out of his mouth. And he wants to make you better.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/features\/padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Padraig Harrington is a serial truth teller. Ask his pro-am partners | GOLF Originals","og_description":"Padraig Harrington is all in on every practice swing, every swing swing, every word out of his mouth. And he wants to make you better.","og_url":"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/features\/padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals\/","og_site_name":"Golf","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/golf\/","article_modified_time":"2024-07-18T23:57:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1440,"url":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/paddy1-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@golf_com","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/features\/padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals\/","url":"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/features\/padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals\/","name":"Padraig Harrington is a serial truth teller. Ask his pro-am partners | GOLF Originals","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/golf.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/features\/padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/features\/padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/paddy1-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2024-07-18T19:25:52+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-18T23:57:57+00:00","description":"Padraig Harrington is all in on every practice swing, every swing swing, every word out of his mouth. And he wants to make you better.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/features\/padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/features\/padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/features\/padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/paddy1-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/paddy1-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1440,"caption":"Padraig Harrington in the latest episode of GOLF Originals"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/golf.com\/news\/features\/padraig-harrington-gifted-teacher-golf-originals\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/golf.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Padraig Harrington is a serial truth teller. Ask his pro-am partners | GOLF Originals"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/golf.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/golf.com\/","name":"Golf","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/golf.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/golf.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/golf.com\/#organization","name":"golf.com","url":"https:\/\/golf.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/golf.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/GOLF_logoGREEN.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/GOLF_logoGREEN.png","width":2130,"height":628,"caption":"golf.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/golf.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/golf\/","https:\/\/x.com\/golf_com","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/golf_com","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/golf-magazine\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/golfdotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCzdMqRWzdF0JUJRIVa-dgDw"]}]}},"amp_enabled":false,"is_gated":false,"authors":[{"name":"Michael Bamberger ","url":"https:\/\/golf.com\/writers\/michael-bamberger\/"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/15545326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15545461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15545326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15545326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15545326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}